Linking resource-based view with business economics of woodworking industry: Earlier findings and future insights

Abstract

The business environment and sources of competitiveness in the woodworking industry have changed notably since the 1990s. Wood products are traded globally, and with the increase of trade, abundant forest resources are no longer the main source of sustainable competitiveness. Competition within the woodworking industry is increasing both between European and non-European enterprises, as well as within the EU. Capability to create value-added, making rational strategic choices, and creative usage of intangible and tangible resources have been emphasized as crucial for sustaining woodworking industry competitiveness in higher cost-level countries. Resource-based view (RBV) defines the availability of intangible assets, capabilities and tangible resources, and their heterogeneous combination to form the basis for company success. The objective of this review is to examine the possibilities to employ the RBV to the study of the woodworking industry by combining existing empirical results of the factors of companies' competitiveness with assessment of the RBV. In the existing literature, strategies implemented in woodworking companies have been approached rather widely, while the role of intangible and tangible resources in building firm-level success has received less focus. In addition, a significant gap exists in linking firms' financial accounting information with empirical data on their resource-usage and business strategies. In future studies, more information of the effects of these strategic elements on the actual business success of the firms would be needed.